Research Articles Base: Ipod

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR ON MP3 PLAYERS

INTRODUCTION                 The growth of electronic technologies has brought many changes to the society. Every country can feel the effects of the digital revolution. One of the things that digitalization has changed is the way people listen to music. Cassettes became obsolete and have been replaced by compact discs where music tracks are compressed into digital files. Then, the world witnessed the shift of music into mp3s. Music tracks are no longer stuck into copyrighted album CDs but are now downloadable from many mp3 websites across the internet. According to an International Federation Phonographic Industry (IFPI) 2006 report, some 420 million single tracks were downloaded in 2005 alone, an exclamation that the digital music industry is a force to be reckoned with in the global economy. Of course, the digital music industry also grows toe to toe with the digital audio player or mp3 player industry. The IFPI (2006) report stated that in 2005, consumers bought over 60 million portable digital music players (worth an estimated $US 9 billion). With this growth of an industry after its development and introduction to the market a few years ago, it is interesting to determine how consumers perceive these new technologies, especially the medium (mp3 players) where digital music tracks are played. One example of a successful digital portable player brand is Apple’s iPod. Today, the iPod does not stand alone as competitors gradually increase. Apple now has a wide range of competitors including Creative (Zen product range), Rio (Karma, Carbon), Sony (Network Walkman) and others.   PROBLEM STATEMENT                 Today, almost every youth uses portable digital players to listen to their favorite tunes. With the growth of digital portable player manufacturers and licensed brands, consumers have a wide variety of options. One downside however is there are still those who are pessimistic about the idea of music digitalization. The IFPI (2005) 2005 report mentioned that European survey shows increasing awareness of, use of, and intentions to use, legal download services. This is a hint that consumer attitude on digital music and portable player devices are still mixed because there are other options and alternatives. Thus, investigating customer behavior on digital portable player may open the door to the consumer’s perceptions on digital portable devices – on how they see it, their preference to it, how much are they willing to pay for it, is it their first music medium choice, and so on and so forth.   RESEARCH OBJECTIVES               The aim of this study is to investigate the behavior of consumers on digital music and mp3 players. Consumers will be asked about different factors that affects their purchase of digital portable audio players or mp3 players.               The following are the objectives of this study:     1.         To determine the preferences of consumers when purchasing digital portable audio players. 2.         To know if the attitude of consumers to digital products have changed. 3.         To determine if the purchase of mp3 players depends on buyer’s attitude on digital music. 4.         To develop a suggestion on how mp3 players can be effectively marketed to the modern consumers.   LITERATURE REVIEW     Mp3s                 Mp3, also known as MPEG-1 audio layer 3, is a popular digital audio encoding and compression format invented and standardized in 1991 by a team of engineers directed by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany. The purpose of the mp3 is to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent audio, yet still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio to most listeners. This is similar to zipping a sound file but also removes any sound information that could not be heard by the human ear. This greatly reduces the size of file, with a normal stereo CD being some 650MB and 74 minutes, whereas in MP3 format this is usually about .                 Today, mp3s have gone a long way. It has developed into a potential mass-market distribution format for music media. IFPI (2006) reported that there are now at least two million tracks and 165,000 albums available on the major services in the web. Digital music expanded rapidly to the globe, as there are now over 335 legal online music services, up from 50 two years ago.               The UK is one of the only three countries (Germany and France) in Europe that sees growth in the mp3 market. It is the fastest-growing online music market in Europe as major retail stores such as Virgin and HMV launched online and existing services like Napster and iTunes are marketing their brand heavily. also reported that the UK saw sales of 26 million single tracks downloads during the year – a four-fold increase on 2004. Furthermore, downloads have been successfully merged into the singles charts, giving digital sales greater media and public exposure.   Mp3 Players                 The growth of the mp3 provided a manufacturing idea for information technology companies – the mp3 player or portable digital audio player. Mp3 players were launched in 1998, and during that time, most consumers are not familiar with digital or mp3 music. Mp3 player, also know as Digital Audio Player (DAP), is a device that stores, organizes and plays digital music files. Mp3 players are portable so it can be carried by the user anywhere. It is also capable of storing over a hundred mp3 music tracks. This shows that advantage that MP3 players have over traditional compact disc, or CD, and cassette players. Other advantages include the ability to better manage music content and longer battery life. These advantages and the availability of digital audio and media files on the Internet may in sometime lead to the replacement of traditional CD and cassette players with MP3 players. Its advantages show that mp3s are far superior to CDs and MDs (Mini Disks) because mp3s can be networked and shared, and can be compiled or stored in large quantities.               Stated that the worldwide market for all MP3 players is expected to grow from 36.8 million units in 2004 to 132.0 million units in 2009, representing a compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 29%. Wang (2005) of Parks and Associates found in his research the consumer interest on mp3 players on several countries as shown in the table below:               The figure shows that France and China has the highest potential of consumer purchase intentions. However, UK may also potentially increase its mp3 sales. It can be seen on the graph above that those who consider purchasing mp3 players are those who already own one. Obviously, they are already exposed and well-informed and acquainted with the advantages of mp3 players. This hints that efforts in marketing and promoting mp3 and digital music should be increased with those who do not own mp3 players yet as the specific targets.               There are three dimensions that are relevant in the market performance of mp3 players: music fidelity, selection, and robustness. Consumers of mp3 players look for the performance of the mp3 players in terms of its sound quality when playing mp3s.  stated that consumers often compare the sound of mp3 players with the sound of CD players. Before, most consumers agree that mp3 players were inferior to CD players in terms of music fidelity. However, today, consumers are starting to agree the fidelity of mp3 players are ‘fair enough’.               Selection is also a concern for consumers and in this part, mp3s are definitely superior to any music medium,  explained that with large capacity MP3 players, the music is with the owner at all times (like a large collections of CDs) and easily accessible through innovative interfaces. Music collections can be easily stored within the mp3 player and a large selection of music is readily available for the user to enjoy.             Finally, robustness of a music player is another issue for consumers. Again, mp3 players have the edge in this dimension simply because they have no moving parts to wear out (at least in flash based versions), and no risk of skipping unlike CD or MD players.               The market profitability of mp3 players are not too high but still on the medium level. The buyer power is moderately in the medium level because there are lots of big retailers to deal with but some direct-web sales. Supplier is also medium because the value from hard drives, processors and other key technologies pass largely to suppliers. On the other hand, one of its advantages is its low barrier to entry mainly because of the online retail.   One of the problems in mp3 players are that there are numbers of substitutes that buyer can decide for. These are: FM Radio, CD players, cell phone games, books, portable TV. Furthermore, competition is high among mp3 player companies. Rivalry is not necessarily price-based but most often feature-based.               A also stated that there are many industry dynamics that mp3 player companies can take advantage of. Basically, there is a high heterogeneity of demand, high consumer emotional involvement, and high product spillovers. Brands must also emphasize a certain touch of uniqueness, for instance, how it can be differentiated from an IPod or a walkman. The IPod: A Good Example of a Successful Mp3 Player Brand             Reported in Newsweek that the iPod has been such a hit that one university professor stated the ratio of iPod owners in their university is 2 to 3. Those who actually create music and those who love music are among the biggest fans of the iPod.   When IPod was released by Apple in 2001, it was not the first in the business. However, the key to the IPod’s success was that Apple was the first to take into consideration what consumers really want. Based on Apple’s research, they found that people want to take all their music with them, but they want personal music players to be unobtrusive. So, IPod was made as small as a deck of playing cards and build it to hold 1,000 songs. Added with its other unique design and traditional Mac color, IPod became an instant blockbuster.   The Importance of Customer Behavior   The success of IPod is basically an example of how important it is to have knowledge about consumer behavior. Several consumer behavior researches testified to this, argued that a customer evaluates a product or a service. Such action is based on the customer’s reaction from the using the product or service, which means that the product or service should leave a good perception to the customer to consider him or her satisfied. Frederick and Salter (1995) explained that it can be ensured that a customer is satisfied by taking into importance the customer value package, which includes: price, product quality, service quality, innovation, and corporate image. Others also stated the importance of maintaining or establishing a uniqueness of the product, while also understanding customers and what pleases them. Customers should also understand the product and be allowed to set their own standards in order to be satisfied. Furthermore, customers also like their requests to be processed quickly or taken into consideration.   Consumer behavior is defined as: “The activities that people engage in when selecting, purchasing, and using products and services so as to satisfy needs and desires…” such activities involve mental and emotional processes, in addition to physical actions”. There are many factors that determine these activities, and the product is just one of them. There are some frameworks that helps explain customer behavior are brand orientation model, and integrated framework for cross-cultural consumer behavior. Others, on the other hand, are expressed through demographic research, such as the relationship of gender on consumer behavior. These models and studies are not only applicable to fashion retail but also to consumer behavior in general products.   RESEARCH STRATEGY AND METHOD                 This research adopted the research philosophy of positivism because the aim of the study is to answer several research questions, which are mentioned earlier in this paper. This research philosophy allows the study to revolve with an observable social reality in order to come up with law-like generalisations similar to those produced by the physical and natural scientists, and in this tradition, the researcher becomes an objective analyst, coolly making detached interpretations about those data that have been collected in an apparently value-free manner.   Design                 The research design is exploratory because it intends to explore the behavior of consumers to mp3 player products through survey. This research is also cross-sectional because of limited time. This research is a study of a particular phenomenon (or phenomena) at a particular time.  Accordingly, cross-sectional studies often employ the survey strategy, and they may be seeking to describe the incidence of a phenomenon or to compare factors in different organizations.               The study can also be considered descriptive because the objective is to portray an accurate profile of persons, events or situations, and may be an extension or a forerunner to a piece of exploratory research, a research that tries to establish causal relationship between variables. Accordingly, with the descriptive research, it is necessary to have a clear picture of the phenomena on which a researcher wishes to collect data prior to the collection of the data. In this study, the phenomenon to be investigated is the customer behavior on mp3 players.             On the other hand, said project tutors are often wary or work that is too descriptive, and they will want a researcher to go further and draw conclusions from the data gathered; nevertheless, description in management and business research has a very clear place, although, it should not be thought of as an end in itself, but only as a means to an end.     The survey method, on the other hand, will be used for data collection. Surveys are conducted to gather data from the field in order to generalize results from a sample to a larger population. The primary purpose and advantage of surveys is generalization of the results. Usually, surveys are interested in gathering data from many than in obtaining intensive, detailed information from a few individuals; therefore, it is seldom for a survey to consist of one or very few individuals.             The study will be based on quantitative research. This is chosen because it can provide statistical evidences of data that can be used to generalize consumer behaviors specifically. Quantitative method basically allows the research problems to be conducted in a very specific and set terms. This will basically make analysis of data easier and faster. A quantitative research also specifies both the independent and the dependent variables under investigation. In the case of this study, the independent variable is the consumers of mp3 players while the dependent variable is their behavior when buying or purchasing mp3 players.   Administration of the Questionnaire     A pre-test of the questionnaires will be conducted to 10 samples so as to validate if its contents are okay and can actually answer the research questions of the study. If ever the questionnaire is not suitable as the pre-analysis show, it will be immediately modified. The suggestions of the 10 pre-test samples will also be considered in the modification. The pre-test samples will not be included in the actual set of respondents.   The questionnaires will be administered to respondents through email or personal contact. The questionnaires will contain an introduction that explains clearly the purpose of the study. The questionnaire also contains clear instructions so as the respondents are well-guided throughout their encounter with it.   Survey Instrument   A self-administered structured questionnaire, or the type of questionnaire that is usually completed by respondents will be used in the study. This questionnaire will have two sections: the first part intended to acquire the demographic profile of the respondents, and the other section comprised of a set of attitude statements that intends to determine the level of agreement or disagreement using a five-point Likert scale. The equivalent weights for the answers were:   In the Likert technique, the degree of agreement or disagreement) is given a numerical value ranging from one to five, thus a total numerical value can be calculated from all the responses.   The questionnaire design to be used is semi-structured. Accordingly, semi-structured interviews provide the researcher the opportunity to ‘probe’ answers, which can be done in instances where there is a need or want for the interviewees to explain further or build on their responses, and this is important if one is adopting a phenomenological approach, where the researcher is concerned to understand the meanings that respondents attribute to various phenomena, as interviewees may use words or ideas in a particular way, and the opportunity to probe these meanings will add significance and depth to the data obtained and may also lead the discussion into areas that had not been previously considered but which are significant for understanding and may help in addressing research questions and objectives. Samples               This study will survey ordinary people who are music enthusiasts or those who refer listening to music as one of their hobbies. Samples will be collected through convenience sampling. Convenience sampling is chosen because the general music enthusiast population is broad and difficult to identify. Convenience sampling will make data sampling faster and easier.               The target population is 1500 music enthusiasts. The plan is to spot potential respondents on record stores or on musical concerts. The search for respondents will take place within London, specifically on record stores and music bars or music hotspots.     Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR ON MP3 PLAYERS

INTRODUCTION The growth of electronic technologies has brought many changes to the society. Every country can feel t...

IPOD versus Cell Phone

‘’During the year 2006, there was a market for music-enabled mobile phones was emerging to challenge Apple Computer’s dominant position in the digital music industry. Through its iPod line of portable digital music devices and its iTunes Music Store, Apple controlled more than half of the market for both music player hardware and online music sales. But the evolving ability to merge those devices with mobile phones, and to deliver music to mobile handsets created a potentially market-changing opportunity for players in several industries. There examines the key players and covers the origins of the mobile music business, projections on its potential size, its technological building blocks and the key dynamics, the music delivery method and pricing as well as mobile-PC integration that characterize mobile music business models.’’      Most of today’s mobile companies are in vision to always acquire better and appropriate innovation changes in terms of digital processes for adding a more suitable mobile music chain and the using of IPod as well as high tech cell phones as a channel or medium for that technology advancement and the continuous cycle of the music industry as of the present epoch. The companies who markets solely on IPods and cell phones has provided a more ideal stance in terms of market techniques and segmentation like for instance, providing small business sectors a chance to craft retailers, suppliers as well as distributors of such IPod and cell phone items. There is also imperative market communication, a connection among large companies focusing on the type of business nature for example, Apple IPod, Samsung as well as Nokia cell phones respectively. There has been understandable paradigm cycle for balancing coherences as possibly resulted by fierce level of competition and the attack of digital, more easy and durable technology that provides satisfaction and worth of money spent by the mobile users as well as customers who re music lovers wishing to have easy access of the type of music they want to hear at any place and time.  For the SWOT Analysis, the strength of IPods can be it can have the capacity to download volumes of music songs and video while, cell phones also have the capacity to record as well as download songs depending on such range of the phone as well as the features. The music industry then is a boom to all ages of different generations mostly to the youth age groups as well as to those young professionals who have better working careers and even to those groups below the par bracket, to the elementary and high school students even a pre-schooler knows that cell phones acquire such kind of music because of its strong impact and may even recognize IPod as well. The weakness of IPod and cell phones can be staggering in terms of sales and profits as there lots of companies now that specializes in building a medium for music accessibility in those items, and there can be issues and challenges that will affect customer preferences, their mode of buying and will have such unlucky breaks for the suppliers and retailers as well as the company as a whole. The impact of globalization can also be a weakness in terms of carrying out a stable market position for focusing IPods and cell phones in giving out assurance for quick and easy music acquisition.  The opportunities imply a continues music revolution through the IPods and cell phones and the opportunity for loyal technology addicts to wait what Apple company is gong to produce next that will be a craze in the society and that people will dream of getting a new one as it is popular and most recent in IPod technology meanwhile, cell phone collectors and enthusiasts will provide Nokia company a stable share in the market as they are also waiting for the new Nokia phone model to be released, knowing the features and how music is accessible over an IPod. The opportunity for the firms to have better chain management and always in control of its quality management and the opportunity to plan and realize advertising promotions in communicating to the people, who are basically good potential buyers. Thus, there can also be opportunity to execute and implement market communication plan and positive drivers integrating into the music industry market and position. For the threats, there can be uncontrolled conditions that technology driven companies are in danger such as the threat for digital rights management, copying or stealing of rights by others without permission, the presence of risk management in achieving sales quota if there is any, risk management because of customer loyalty like for instance, one company is loyal to the other and mostly, lack and failure of management standards and principles that is threaten by the rising demands of music revolution and tight space competition reality.  The industry is for the most part made up of mature markets and with maturity comes sophistication. It is by necessity that marketing communication must satisfy the ever-increasing demands and emphasis placed on it as the single surviving, sustainable, competitive edge in the marketing environment. Aside, customer behavior holds key to understanding what it is that moves specific groups of prospects closer to a decision to commit and buy and that customer perceptions and behavior are crucial to crystallizing important to flourishing market value as there is identifying the individual customer within targeted niche’ markets. The industry is tough and the demand is in high notion and the competition is fierce and tight for IPods and cell phones. The value of market share maybe in low stance and needs rejuvenation probably because one company selling IPod and cell phones is far better than the other company in providing useful and accessible mediums for music revolution such as through music downloads and compilation. The recording labels are not only taking legal action against file-sharing systems, but also beginning to incorporate the Internet into their own distribution networks. Some music companies have launched commercial file-sharing services and others are planning to follow suit. However, none of these commercial offers is particularly successful and several commercial digital music services have suspended operations. (Assael, 1998; Degeratu, Rangaswamy and Wu, 2000) While a lot of attention has been focused on the issue of free access to music and the violation of copyright laws through file-sharing services, little is known about the behavior of consumers using such services or how well digital music will sell on the Internet. Although the importance of online consumer behavior to successful sites is undisputed (Degeratu et al., 2000), there is a lack of information about consumer’s online music procurement behavior and price sensitivity. A number of music companies are introducing legal subscription-based services, which pay royalties for the songs they distribute. One of the most important questions relates to users’ price sensitivity for such services. Aside, determining these would allow marketers to address the needs of different online music-procurement groups more objectively. Given the attractiveness for the music industry, capturing Internet-induced changes in the behavior of downloaders would be highly relevant to marketing practice. Furthermore, the Internet-related behavior of non-downloaders, who also seek music-related information and services but show little inclination to download music, needs exploring as little is known about their attitudes. From a demand perspective, this group needs to be considered because they are potential customers of online music services. (Assael, 1998; Degeratu, Rangaswamy and Wu, 2000) The preliminary point for development and evaluation would be to explore the motives for using liberated digital online music mediums. It is probable that users associate certain benefits with online music, benefits they would also expect in commercial offers. The exploratory investigation had three aims. First, it seek to identify imperative challenges of the music industry, to select and utilize a model of established line of music procurement through using technology tools as provided by the companies.  Despite the remarkable general music gadgets market, the music industry is facing stagnating revenues, mainly because of the dissemination of reasonably priced technologies to copy sound carriers, pirate sales of disks also Internet bound music sharing services and the progressively multi-demanding consumer base that have consequences on music industry sales and profits. (Assael, 1998; Degeratu, Rangaswamy and Wu, 2000)    Changing patterns of behavior The music industry poses salutation opportunity to allow young consumers to engage in more activities through IPods and cell phones. Furthermore, the growing amount of changing music medium style and unreliable degree of Internet resemblance and innovative distribution channels make it more difficult to envisage music connected consumer behavior. (Dolan, 2000; Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1996) As for instance, numerous consumers access gratis music from Internet but continue to buy compact disks which makes it hard to label consumers into cell phone and IPod users. A model of music procurement behavior In order to acquire enhanced understanding of customer music procurement, a buying decision making approach is used which focuses on how consumers acquire better technology gadgets for having ample music information and how they utilize it to achieve their desired music types. In toting up to the imagined relations between the different stages of music procurement and behavioral reactions situation variables and individual characteristics are illustrated. (Dolan, 2000; Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1996)  The process   The process of music procurement covers several stages that influence each other as the consumers become active when they identify a need for music. Some consumers may have specific requirements influenced by music reviews found in magazines and newspapers and others have less definite buying desire for cell phones and IPods that will cause the consumer to gather information on available music offers. (Assael, 1998; Degeratu, Rangaswamy and Wu, 2000) Depending on the accessibility and awareness with digital knowledge and technology, marketing and the utilization of music records and labels will contrast. The innovative consumers are more likely to download music from the Internet and to listen to it using IPod player, whereas other consumers will prefer conformist sound carriers such as cell phones and or CDs and will opt for usual procurement through suppliers and retailers that will lead to evaluation affecting future marketing decisions of companies such as Apple and Nokia.   The music procurement implies that customers can decide among various alternatives of free as well as commercial music download of songs or videos and that some consumer connected uniqueness and situational variables applies music value authority. The buyer need for which type of music is secured in which such arrangement will depend on personal character and situational variables and hoping to emulate the success of Apple’s iPod and mobile phone industry is making a bet on music downloads as means of boosting market revenues like for example from the fast 3G networks and handsets that is globally presented. (Dolan, 2000; Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1996; Kretschmer, Klimis and Wallis, 1999) Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

IPOD versus Cell Phone

‘’During the year 2006, there was a market for music-enabled mobile phones was emerging to challenge Apple Computer’s dominant position i...

A Model of Music Procurement Behavior

PART II. IDENTIFICATION OF OPPORTUNITIES             The opportunities imply a continues music revolution through the IPods and cell phones and the opportunity for loyal technology addicts to wait what Apple company is gong to produce next that will be a craze in the society and that people will dream of getting a new one as it is popular and most recent in IPod technology meanwhile, cell phone collectors and enthusiasts will provide Nokia company a stable share in the market as they are also waiting for the new Nokia phone model to be released, knowing the features and how music is accessible over an IPod.             The opportunity for the firms to have better chain management and always in control of its quality management and the opportunity to plan and realize advertising promotions in communicating to the people, who are basically good potential buyers. Thus, there can also be opportunity to execute and implement market communication plan and positive drivers integrating into the music industry market and position. PART III. DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVES A. Changing patterns of behavior             The music industry poses salutation opportunity to allow young consumers to engage in more activities through IPods and cell phones. Furthermore, the growing amount of changing music medium style and unreliable degree of Internet resemblance and innovative distribution channels make it more difficult to envisage music connected consumer behavior. (Dolan, 2000; Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1996) As for instance, numerous 1consumers access gratis music from Internet but continue to buy compact disks 1which makes it hard to label consumers into cell phone and IPod users. The music industry poses salutation opportunity to allow young consumers to engage in more activities through IPods and cell phones. Furthermore, the growing amount of changing music medium style and unreliable degree 1of Internet resemblance and innovative distribution channels make it more difficult to envisage music connected consumer behavior. (Dolan, 2000; Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1996) As for instance, numerous 1consumers access gratis music from Internet but continue to buy compact disks 1which makes it hard to label consumers into cell phone and IPod users. B. A model of music procurement behavior              In order to acquire enhanced understanding of customer music procurement, a buying decision making approach is used which focuses on how consumers acquire better technology gadgets for having ample music information and how they utilize it to achieve their desired music types. In toting up to the imagined relations between the different stages of music procurement and behavioral reactions situation variables and individual characteristics are illustrated. (Dolan, 2000; Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1996)  PART IV. EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES             The industry flourished market value as the music industry is tough and the demand is in high notion and the competition is fierce and tight for IPods and cell phones. The value of market share maybe in low stance and needs rejuvenation probably because one company selling IPod and cell phones is far better than the other company in providing useful and accessible mediums for music revolution such as through music downloads and compilation. The recording labels are not only taking legal action against file-sharing systems, but also beginning to incorporate the Internet into their own distribution networks. Some music companies have launched commercial file-sharing services and others are planning to follow suit. However, none of these commercial offers is particularly successful and several commercial digital music services have suspended operations. (Assael, 1998; Degeratu, Rangaswamy and Wu, 2000)              The preliminary point for development and evaluation would be to explore the motives for using liberated digital online music mediums. It is probable that users associate certain benefits with online music, benefits they would also expect in commercial offers. The exploratory investigation had three aims. First, it seek to identify imperative challenges of the 1music industry, to select and utilize a model of established line of music procurement through using technology tools as provided to detect pirate sales of disks also Internet bound music sharing services and the progressively multi-demanding consumer base that have consequences on music industry sales and profits. (Assael, 1998; Degeratu, Rangaswamy and Wu, 2000)  PART V. SELECTION AND IMPLEMENTATION The process             Depending on the accessibility and awareness with digital knowledge and technology, marketing and the utilization of music records and labels will contrast. The innovative consumers are more likely to download music from the Internet and to listen to it using IPod player, whereas other consumers will prefer conformist sound carriers such as cell phones and or CDs and will opt for usual procurement through suppliers and retailers that will lead to evaluation affecting future marketing decisions of companies such as Apple and Nokia. The music procurement implies that customers can decide among various alternatives of free as well as commercial music download of songs or videos and that some consumer connected uniqueness and situational variables applies music value authority. The buyer need for which type of music is secured in which such arrangement will depend on personal character and situational patterns that is globally presented. (Dolan, 2000; Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1996; Kretschmer, Klimis and Wallis, 1999)   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

A Model of Music Procurement Behavior

PART II. IDENTIFICATION OF OPPORTUNITIES The opportunities imply a continues music revolution through the IPods and cell pho...

HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION

Interactive products are very interesting and highly innovative products that are enticing to the market especially now in the changing world where most people demand for products that is sophisticated yet with the easiness and convenience of using it.  Thus, the interaction design of the interactive products are pivotal as it creates a representational dialogue between the people or the users and the intelligent products.  As the evolution of technologically driven products has recently become more complicated but gaining support in the marketplace and acceptance from the users.  Interaction designers with capabilities to innovate and redefine the features of these mini powerful interactive products that would cater to the many disparate people who have diverse taste and preferences.  As the number of people wanting this interactive products increases, interactive products on one hand, have become a lot more functional and operable.  Additionally, equipping it with more features, functionality, and capabilities.  Moreover, the success of interactive products in the marketplace depends on the three factors namely, the design of high-quality, engaging interactive experiences and good interaction design. In this paper, we would be exploring two interactive products hardware, one that is greatly designed and the other one as badly designed.  Along with the brief analysis and description of its hardware aspect, an explainaition of what makes it good or not good, the usability principles and the drawing of conclusions that would be based on the assessment and the analysis of the good and bad interactive products.  For the well-designed interactive product, iPod would serve to be a great example, as it is loaded with great features and user-friendly interface and the hard to resist design which makes it very pleasing and popular.  On the other hand, the badly designed interactive product is a mobile unit from nokia and that is N3650.   The Ipod 60 GB model   Description: For people who need to have a dose of their favorite music and videos everyday, instead of buying two interactive products, all can be found in an iPod 60GB model from the makers of Apple Computer.  Indeed, an interactive product that has successfully incorporates both sound and vision into one amazing gizmo. Not only does it come up with innovative design but it gets rid of the bulkiness and come up with a slim design that surely is appealing and in fact, emulated by some competitors to their products.  The hardware input and output components of an iPod dock connectors, 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack, an audio and video output and the s-video output.  With the size having a height of 4.1 inches, width of 2.4 inches, depth of 0.55 inches and a weight of only 5.5 oz, an iPod spells handiness.  Analysis:   An iPod equipped with a stylish Apple Click wheel makes accessibility a lot easier as one can browse on the entire music, photo and video library features of the gizmo with just from one thumb makes it a well-designed product that suits the taste of the people.  In terms of learnability, despite of the fact of its sophistication yet simplified accessibility for the user makes the iPod very learnable, even without going to the fuzz of learning everything in the manual.  The speed, accuracy and memorability aspects of usability is reinforcing for the users since learnability aspect is easy and can be readily gratified.  Moreover, with the first four aspect of usability being gratified, the level of satisfaction for that matter would likely increase.   Conclusions:               The impact of iPod in the market creates and provide alternative means for the people to enjoy both music and videos altogether with a style.  iPod’s design, innovative features and the easiness of browsing and making use of the gadget, seemingly does not need improvements anymore. Although, the constant redefinition of its functionalities and the operability, would make the iPod product stay long in the market.   The N3650 Description:             Nokia being the most preferred mobile phones makers for some time is known to bring out innovative line of phone models.  However, with the tough competitors around producing their own innovative and stylish phone models  it is really hard to tell if Nokia still is the most preferable brand.  The N3650 of Nokia packed with features such as an integrated video recorder, player and camera, among the first to offer the MMS, wireless technology devices such as bluetooth, triband, and so on, are innovative features that people can indulge into.  Nevertheless, the design of Nokia with its bulkiness, makes it not interesting for the people who prefers to have smaller enhanced mobile phones compare than that of bringing a phone that cannot fit in to the jeans with small pockets. Analysis:             N3650 did not make it big to the market because of its bulky design and discouraging keypads which makes the model badly designed.  Discouraging in a sense that the letters are far from each other making the manipulation less interesting, especially in the composition of an SMS.  With the uninteresting look of the keypads and the distant keys makes the browsing quite difficult particularly for the inexperienced users.  The learnability of the phone is not that easy because of its complexities there is an obvious need to go through with the manual.  Further, the speed and accuracy would be limited to a minimum of the fact that the keys are distant from each other.  Likewise, the memorability would be susceptible to forgetting since the learnability as what has been stated is not easy.  Lastly, the level of satisfaction aspect would likely be low.  Low satisfaction because with the degree of difficulty in the learning aspect combined with the minimality in speed and accuracy makes the users less satified with the product. Conclusion: The point of interactive designers of Nokia is to produce a design that is innovative but with the distant keys, which may at first be attracting because of its uniqueness, would in the long-run makes it less interesting.  In fact, as Nokia sense the unattractiveness of the distant keys, they follow-up the N3650 with an N3660 that has improved design and keypad.  People would always prefer handiness in the design of the interactive products and demands for easiness  in the operability.  Therefore, the design of N3650 makes it discouraging even if it been equipped with innovative features. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION

Interactive products are very interesting and highly innovative products that are enticing to the market especially now in the changing...

THE BASIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CONSUMER MARKETING AND BUSINESS MARKETING WITH SPECIFIC RELEVANCE TO MARKETING STRATEGIES

Background             The iPod was introduced by Apple, Inc. to fulfill the music lovers desire to control what they listen to and when. Analysis showed that a significant number of consumers did not want to carry bulky CDs and have to switch back and forth when selecting artists and songs; rather, they would be willing to spend in excess of 0 plus for the convenience that the iPod provides storage, cataloging and retrieval all in one simple, easy-to-use device. The iPod and related products have been pegged by industry analysts as reaping over 55 percent of money spent on digital music players (Cited from, 2004). In looking to expand the usability of the iPod, several accessories have been introduced such as arm bands to attach the iPod, ear-buds to improve the sound, docking cradles and a car conversion unit, to name a few. These devices encourage the acceptance of the product, which in turn, leads to word-of-mouth advertising and increased sales of both music and additional units. (Cited from,  2003) These accessories add to the mobility of the iPod but fail to improve on the usability of the product in the hands-free, eyes free and ears free environment of driving a car. Apple will expand the usability of the iPod to the automobile through iTrip/V, an accessory to the iPod that integrates speech recognition and playback through the existing automobile sound systems. The iTrip/V will provide the customer with the ability to select music by artist, song, album genre or user definable play list simply by speaking. (Cited from, , 2003) Apple has diversified its product lines with mixed success in the past, but the iPod is Apple’s rising star it has now surpassed computer sales while sales of computers has been flat with limited inroads into the marketplace, sales of the iPod products have captured close to 50 percent of the market share. (Cited from,  1994) To maintain this leadership position, Apple must continue to innovate and differentiate itself from other players. Apple has the resources to develop the necessary products or to partner with like minded companies to provide the best product on the market (Cited from, , 1994; , 2004).   The Apple situation (Business to business and business to consumer markets)             The Apple situation, marketing strategies and mix relate to the quality value of Apple products and services such as the Macintosh line of desktop and notebook computers, the iPod line of portable digital music players, the Xserve server and Xserve RAID storage products, a portfolio of consumer and professional software applications, the Mac operating system, the iTunes Store, portfolio of peripherals that support and enhance the Macintosh and iPod product lines, and a variety of other service and support offerings and sells its products worldwide through its online stores, its retail stores, its direct sales force and third party wholesalers, resellers and value-added resellers and sells products for the purpose of education, consumer, creative professional, business as well as government customers.               Apple’s business to business markets, there influences such ability, through the design and development of its own operating system, hardware, and many software applications and technologies, to bring to its customers around the world compelling new products and solutions with superior ease-of-use, seamless integration and innovative industrial design. There participates in several highly competitive markets, including personal computers with its Macintosh line of computers, consumer electronics with its iPod line of portable digital music players, and distribution of third-party digital content through its online iTunes Store. While the Company is widely recognized as an innovator in the personal computer and consumer electronic markets as well as a leader in the emerging market for distribution of digital content, these are all highly competitive markets that are subject to aggressive pricing and increased competition. To remain competitive, the Company believes increased investment in research and development and marketing and advertising is necessary to maintain and extend its position in the markets where it competes. In case of business to consumer markets, Apple sells to customers directly through its online stores around the world and to improve access to the iPod product line, the Company has significantly expanded the number of distribution points where iPods are sold. Apple believes that for both professionals and consumers the personal computer has become the center of an evolving digital lifestyle by integrating and enhancing the utility of advanced digital devices such as the Company’s iPods, digital video and still cameras, televisions, CD and DVD players, cellular phones, personal digital assistants, and other consumer electronic devices. The attributes of the personal computer that enable this functionality include a high-quality user interface, easy access to relatively inexpensive data storage, the ability to run complex applications, and the ability to connect easily to a wide variety of other digital devices and to the Internet.             Thus, one goal initiative is to bring new customers to the Company and expand its installed base through sales to computer users who currently do not own a Macintosh computer and first time personal computer buyers. By operating its own stores and building them in desirable high-traffic locations, Apple is able to better control the customer retail experience and attracts new customers. Apple acquires components through a combination of formal purchase orders, supplier contracts, and open orders based on projected demand information. The personal computer industry is highly competitive and is characterized by aggressive pricing practices, downward pressure on gross margins, frequent introduction of new products, short product life cycles, evolving industry standards, continual improvement in product price/performance characteristics, rapid adoption of technological and product advancements by competitors, price sensitivity on the part of consumers and number of competitors.         Product Strategies             Apple Company has designed a range of products and services to meet the needs of education customers. These products and services include the iMac and the MacBook, video creation and editing solutions, wireless networking, professional development solutions, and one-to-one learning solutions. The iPod remains a mostly closed and vertically-integrated platform. Although Apple provides documented interfaces for hardware accessories, developers have no supported way to add features to the software and although the iPod supports the mainstream MP3 and AAC formats, the iPod does not support other proprietary formats like Windows Media and Real Audio, and Apple refuses to license its FairPlay DRM to other online music vendors. Apple did add Windows PC support with their second generation iPod series. The service itself is a key component to marketing mix as the service should be the best advertisement as there is specialization on product valuation intended for international product marketing means and develop contacts with people who can be loyal buyers and recommenders. The taking of the products across national boundaries into fresh markets, explore channels, guide customers and establish better relationships. The service itself is a key to the markets.       Pricing Strategies             Price competition in the market for personal computers and related peripherals has been particularly intense as competitors who sell Windows and      based personal computers have aggressively cut prices and lowered their product margins for personal computing products. Apple focusing on business to business as well as business to consumer markets, but relatively broadly defined as the knowledge and expertise is most valuable when applied to the market entrance phase of high-tech products to be marketed through channels in new markets usually across international borders so they need to establish new channel relationships. The strategy is to focus on Apple computers main area of expertise as the company has plenty of competition in international marketing and in product introduction expertise, but nobody can down the company as it stay focused on introducing high-tech product into better services for the global markets.                             The tactic is to keep those realistic in terms of the quality of products offered as well as stable based marketing and the use of innovative technologies in global communications like for instance the web technologies. Apple’s ability to compete successfully and maintain attractive gross margins and revenue growth is heavily dependent upon its ability to ensure a continuing and timely flow of innovative and competitive products and technologies to the marketplace. As a result, the Company generally incurs higher research and development costs as a percentage of revenue than its competitors who sell personal computers based on other operating systems. Many of these competitors seek to compete aggressively on price and maintain very low cost structures. Apple pricing needs to match with their positioning and not to be very economical and must be at moderate end of the pricing scale that reflects best quality products. Effective marketing and sales initiatives require a thorough understanding of your target markets and channels. Seizing a potential window of opportunity can be critical to establishing a competitive advantage. While Apple is an industry leader in many ways, it falls far short of its peers in recycling and e-waste. This situation creates unnecessary risks, both for Apple and for the environment that we would like to see the company address. The company has not offered innovative free supplemental take back programs.       Distribution Strategies             The Company distributes its products through wholesalers, resellers, national and regional retailers, and cataloguers, many of whom distribute products from competing manufacturers. In addition, the Company sells many of its products and resells certain third-party products in most of its major markets directly to end-users, certain education customers, and certain resellers through its online stores around the world and its retail stores. Many of the Company’s resellers operate on narrow product margins and have been negatively impacted in the past by weak economic conditions. Considerable trade receivables that are not covered by collateral or credit insurance are outstanding with the Company’s distribution and retail channel partners. Apple believes providing direct contact with its targeted customers is an efficient way to demonstrate the advantages of its Macintosh computer and other products over those of its competitors. The Company has significantly increased the points of distribution for the iPod product family in order to make its products available at locations where its customers shop. By the end of fiscal 2006, the Company had opened a total of 165 retail stores, including 147 stores in the U.S. and a total of 18 stores in Canada, Japan and U.K. Apple distributes its products through wholesalers, resellers, national and regional retailers and cataloguers and Apple sells many of its products and resells certain third-party products in most of its major markets directly to consumers, education customers, and businesses through its own sales force and retail and online stores. People Strategy             The primary target people for the Apple iPod as indicated is college students and young adults. Analysis shows that these consumers have the financial ability and willingness to invest in electronic gadgets. (Cited from, , 2004) There is stronger purchase trend by males over females 22 percent for MP3 players. Therefore, Apple’s main focus will be young male adults but this is not homogeneous market. Rather, the market is then segregated by music preferences rock, pop, hip-hop, country, as it is their intent to target both male and female consumers through their music preference whenever feasible. (Cited from,  2004) Aside, customer behavior holds the key to understanding what it is that moves specific groups of prospects closer to a decision to commit and buy and that customer perceptions and behavior are crucial to crystallizing that all important key to successful marketing plan; identifying the individual customer within such targeted niche markets (Cited from, , 1994). With over two million iPod’s sold, Apple has garnered acceptance from many different people from baby boomers to young teenagers, with the majority of its customers being college students and young adults in the United States. (Cited from, 1997) These consumers, who have financial ability and willingness to invest in electronic gadgets, will be the primary target for the iTrip/V and speech-enabled MP3 files which will sell for premium. People in this bracket are computer-savvy consumers who demand and are willing to pay for the products and features they want. Understanding how these consumers make buying decisions is crucial to the success of the product. (Cited from,  1997) Process Strategy             Strategy is focus – Apple strategy involves focusing on specific area of expertise in which the company is strong a group as in any company anywhere in the world as experts in the introduction of technology products, especially through channels of distribution. The company will then focus on geographical markets; the United States, Europe and Latin America and in limited product segments, telecommunication and technology integration products. The target customer is usually end-users in professional and student grand occasionally an owner or president of a medium corporation in a high-growth period. Apple’s value proposition is high-powered extremely valuable expertise to boost major league market entrance to new markets across international borders, at a price premium commensurate with the high value as well as compete on price, on quality that makes the price more than worth it. Apple continues to develop new products and technologies and to enhance existing products in the areas of hardware and peripherals, consumer electronic products, system software, applications software, networking and communications software and solutions and the Internet. The business marketplace is for the most part made up of mature markets and with maturity comes sophistication. It is by necessity that marketing communication is an evolutionary process and must satisfy the ever-increasing demands and emphasis placed on it as the single surviving, sustainable, competitive edge in the marketing environment. (Cited from,  , 1991) Marketing Communication Strategies             Since the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984 with the 1984 Super Bowl commercial, Apple has been recognized for its efforts towards effective advertising and marketing for its products.  The promotion strategy focuses heavily on Public Relations, with emphasis on strong product value in advertising and sales market. Advertising is crucial part of Apple’s marketing mix and thus, depend on quality delivery and customer satisfaction. Public relations is imperative part of the marketing mix as the right PR can get the company quoted as experts in innovative products that has a great touch of technology advancement and continuous updates as supported by the target market and can possibly launch retainer relationship and a detailed plan for public releases and events as well as company reports and interviews. The underlying objective of the PR program is to establish Apple computers expertise in product evolution and positive updating and upgrading of product services standards and principles and be able to keep potential customers to patronize the services offered. The most effective means of communicating will be through advertisements through radio and television services and popular shows geared toward the target audience. Thus, advertising on the iTunes website will be the major communication strategy for reaching existing owners of iPod (Cited from,   1994). Physical Evidence             Apple has invested and will continue to invest in various programs to enhance reseller sales, including staffing selected resellers’ stores with Company employees and contractors. The program requires substantial investment from the Company, while providing no assurance of return or incremental revenue to offset this investment. The Company believes in high-quality buying experience with knowledgeable salespersons that can convey the value of the Company’s products and services greatly enhances its ability to attract and retain customers. The Company sells many of its products and resells certain third-party products in most of its major markets directly to consumers, education customers, and businesses through its retail and online stores. The Company has also invested in programs to enhance reseller sales, including the Apple Sales Consultant Program, which places Apple employees and contractors at selected third-party reseller locations. Apple has always been concerned with customer satisfaction as the company offered an on-site service the next day for any customer complaints as solution to the inconvenience experienced by customers in having to send their computers back to Houston for repairs. The recognition of bundling as a selling point for customers prompted Apple to provide spare parts including training to service providers so that technical support integrates hardware, software and service-provider repair needs of customers. Innovations and product development were made through constant research on new technological advancements in computer gadgets and hardware, choosing which hardware offers the greatest potential in sales in terms of utility and price and developing these gadgets in a less costly manner.              Therefore, technology will enhance the emergence and sharing of knowledge among participants via such venues thought leader access, learning advances, mentoring and business simulations. While technology is useful for some aspects of leadership development, it cannot replace the importance of bringing leaders together to deepen their relationships and their learning experience. There will help ensure that communications reach the intended audiences and that the audiences notice and act upon the messages they receive of marketing communications planning that will harness the power of an effective communications plan to advance organizational objectives. There needs to employ a variety of ways and means to communicate and convey information in multiple formats to accommodate diverse needs. Successful innovative products should attempt to be problem-solving as successful innovative products should attempt to be problem-solving as far as the customer is concerned as awareness can come about as a result of the marketing effort of Apple computers communication. If the product has potential interest and appeal, then potential purchasers will seek further information. Consumers then evaluate the new product against existing products and then make an initial adoption by obtaining a trial sample, which might be a free sample or a ‘trial’ purchase. Consumer behavior can also be characterized through the use of psychological factors which include motivation, perception, learning and attitudes and beliefs. Apple continues to develop new products and technologies and to enhance existing products in the areas of communication software and solutions and the Internet. The business marketplace is for the most part made up of mature markets and with maturity comes sophistication. It is by necessity that marketing communication is an evolutionary process and must satisfy the ever-increasing demands and emphasis placed on it as the single surviving, sustainable, competitive edge in the marketing environment. (Cited from, , 1991; , 2001).                                                 REFERENCES   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

THE BASIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CONSUMER MARKETING AND BUSINESS MARKETING WITH SPECIFIC RELEVANCE TO MARKETING STRATEGIES

Background The iPod was introduced by Apple, Inc. to fulfill the music lovers desire to control what they listen to and wh...

MARKETING STRATEGY

MARKETING STRATEGY

Interactive products are very interesting and highly innovative products that are enticing to the market especially now in the changing...